


Running from Monsters

by saint_troll



Category: Heroes (TV), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Minor Character Death, Other, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-06
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-25 20:15:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/957184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saint_troll/pseuds/saint_troll
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Imagine the the worlds of The Avengers and Heroes co-existing.  How would individuals from either side react to the other?  Are superheroes really anything more than someone with a power utilizing it in a way that society seems to accept?</p><p>...what would happen if Gabriel, if Sylar, set his sights on one of the Avengers?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He'd first caught sight of him on the evening news.  The only truly special one in the group.  Talented?  Sure, they all were.  But none of them brought out the hunger like him. Gabriel smiled to himself and refocused his attention back on the blurry photographs of a man that had to be well over 7 feet with skin that was an earthy hue of green.  Black and grey hair peppered his torso and adorned his head in tightly wound curls. Oh, yes. This one was very special indeed.

The man behind the power drew Gabriel almost as strongly as his speciality.  He had rode into Manhattan  unarmed during the so-called alien attack--an attack that many were now saying had been staged--and had proceeded to transform and subsequently take down not one but two of the alien carriers.  The control behind that was monumental.  Gabriel knew that others might not see it that way, but he had a unique perspective on the topic of control.  It was said that the man disappeared in the weeks following the attack.  It was said that the monster needed to be caged.  He was a man used to running and hiding.

And Gabriel?  Gabriel was going to find him.  

***

“There’s nothing I can do to convince you to stay?”  Tony asked again as he pulled into a parking spot in the depth’s of Port Authority’s garage.  It wasn’t the first time he’d repeated the question and it was definitely not going to be the last; even if next time was months or years from the day.

Bruce shook his head.  He glanced at Tony out of the corner of his eyes.  “Sorry.”  He too repeated his all too familiar lines in a conversation they were both bent on rehashing over and over again.  It would do no good to try and explain the inherent danger of the other guy and him shacking up in Stark Tower.  Tony was set on disregarding the danger as one big misunderstanding.   One person seeing past the rage and finding a soul was not enough to change the past or alter exactly what the future would become if he stayed.  Bruce owed it to the city of New York to step away from his dreams and let them live in peace.  First, 9/11 followed by the destruction of Harlem and then the Chitauri?  The city was chock full of people just waiting for another disaster to befall them.  He wasn’t going to be it.

The hug he leaned over for and gave Tony was anything but platonic despite the fact he’d kept him at arm’s length since the invasion.  “Thank you.”  Bruce offered in a solemn whisper.  Lips pressed into a tight line, he pulled back and met Tony’s gaze and struggled not to drown in the waves of sadness flowing off of him.  “I’ll be okay.  We both will.”  He offered meekly before reaching around to the back seat of the car to grab his duffel bag.  

“You need anything.  Money, lawyers... help, anything...  You call.  You got that, Big Guy?”

Bruce nodded curtly.  They’d spent the weekend watching classic movies and writing code into the Tower’s security grid and programing JARVIS with the new protocols in the case of such an event.  Even if he could never go home again, Bruce now had somewhere to fall when things ultimately went from bad to worse.  

He didn’t make it to the elevator without looking back at Tony’s convertible at least half a dozen times.  This hurt so much more than he’d been expecting.  And that was all the more reason to get the hell out of dodge.  A final lingering look interrupted only by the bell of the elevator arriving and Bruce was stepping inside and out of Tony’s life for the unseeable future.  And he was angry; so very, very angry.

***

Two weeks later in southern Texas, the skies bled crimson and black.  Disheartened at still being stuck in the states, Bruce dwelled on the hopes he'd placed on making it across multiple borders, stopping by Brazil to tie up some loose ends and jumping continents before the eclipse occurred. The eclipse.  The whisper of legends gave such an event depth sure, but they also produced a lot of fear.  Back in Rocinha, he used to listen to the old men converse in the streets.  Urban sprawl had met the Amazonian wildness in a unique combination of stoic and awestruck.  In their eyes, mankind bore witness to an epic battle between the sun and the moon; the redness and dimmed light both a result of the moon bleeding from the damage and losing.  Bruce imagined Hulk’s form obliterating his own; the world turning green as the contaminant within his cells spread to every corner of the earth.

Leaving New York was never going to be enough.  The penance for their sins was too great.  Bruce ducked back into the darkness of his motel room and away from the crowds filtering off of the street now that the phenomenon was passing.  The world shifted and moved beneath their feet and life went on.

***

It was invariably the slums.  What was it that drove the doctor seek out refuge in such squalor?  He had to have noticed that the military lost track of him over a month ago after he’d left the states.  Research had shown that this wasn’t the first time he’d fled to Calcutta.  Processing the possibilities what this meant--that something or someone was drawing him back-- left Gabriel falling back into the movement of the crowd allowing himself to be swept away while he tried to process the implications that he’d assumed to find the man in solitude.  He needed a plan B if this was going to succeed.

Night found Gabriel tucked away in a crumbling soup kitchen with his back to the wall and seated near an exit a few mere feet away from Banner.  A dirty apron hung from the doctor’s hips; his slacks and shirt as ragged as any of the other patrons’ clothing.  He’d been moving amongst the people for almost an hour; stopping to offer a second helping, tending to a cough, offering the support of a hand to the shoulder or a gentle embrace.  The world, it seemed, stopped moving when he reached Gabriel’s table.

“Kaamon aachen?  Aapnaar naam ki?”

Gabriel removed the hood of his jacket and glanced cautiously up at Banner.  He shook his head in a minute response to the questions asked of him in a foreign tongue then cast his eyes downward.  Better to play victim at this point than reveal his true nature, he’d decided.

The doctor tensed immediately, eyes scanning the room but finding nothing out of the ordinary aside from Gabriel.  Untying his apron, Banner tossed it onto one of the seats across from him and sat down.  He regarded Gabriel with curious eyes and it took everything for him not to reach out and run his fingers over the doctor’s scarless face.  

“So, what’s your story?  Lost passport?  Luggage stolen?”

If only getting in and out of the country had been so easy, Gabriel mused.  His hands were red with the blood of sailors and stowaways.  Again, he shook his head in response to the doctor’s questions.  

Banner sighed and leaned back in his chair causing the wood to groan in response to bearing his weight.  “I can’t help, if you won’t talk.”

“What makes you think I need any help?”  Gabriel broke his silence with a smirk.

“I don’t know.  Maybe the fact that you actually ate your entire meal.  Even the week-old, stale bread?  You have dirt in your pores and under your nails.  I’m guessing you haven’t seen a shower in days, maybe longer.  You don’t speak the local dialect.  And you’ve been watching me since you arrived but didn’t leave when I approached.  You want... something.”

Heckles rising at the truth in Banner’s statements, Gabriel flinched away from his gaze and stared at his lap.  So overcome with the tempest of shame threatening to overwhelm him, he failed to notice the doctor reaching out and grasping his forearm.  He startled visibly.

“Hey, it’s okay.  I’ve been there.  I can help, but you have to talk to me.”

He wasn't lying, he had been there. Gabriel wasn't all that surprised to have this confirmed.  He'd gotten what he wanted, the blind trust of someone thinking they were doing a good deed.  So why had he froze up when the doctor was finally within his reach? Gabriel picked at his fingernails as he weighed what exactly to say. He hadn't planned on succeeding so early on. He needed time only there wasn't any.  "I'm not exactly here under legal circumstance."

"What are you running from... I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Grey. Gabriel Gray." He knew better than to drop an alias like Sylar even in a place as remote as this. They were all connected somehow, his hunger told him so, their unique abilities wove a tapestry that only the most brilliant could envision.  

"Gabriel." His name dripped from the doctor's lips like honey from a comb. "And what are you running from, Gabriel?"

Pursing his lips, Gabriel considered the truth briefly.  It could work in current circumstances and would make the trust he was now earning easier to keep hold of with everything went to shit.  Hell, it would probably play on the good doctor’s empathy in a big, big way.  “Myself.”

Staff and patrons alike had begun to stand and make their way out of the kitchen.  Many greeted Banner on their exit; some with a smile and some with a chaste kiss to his cheek.  Every single one of them, Gabriel noted, took notice of the his dinner companion with curious eyes.  It was as if they could read his intentions at a glance and found it troubling that their precious doctor could not.  In any case, Gabriel knew he wasn’t getting out of this unidentifiable and hidden within shadows.

Banner, in his seemingly ingrained politeness, waited until their table was free of prying ears and eyes before asking Gabriel for clarification.  “Yourself?”  He hummed softly.  “Is it working?”

Cocking his head to the side and squinting his eyes at the doctor, Gabriel replied succinctly.  “No, it’s not.”  The hunger had flared behind his eyes and within the depths of his stomach.  He wondered how much of the control was Banner’s and how much of it was his power.  For when he looked in the doctor’s eyes, he saw nothing but rage.

Gabriel watched as Banner looked him over trying to find something that would betray his secrets.  When he came up empty handed, his features were a beauty to behold.  Clearly, he wasn’t a man used to running into walls.  No, Gabriel mused, he was probably used to crashing through them with brute force.  

“Is that what you need help with then?  Running from yourself?”

Actually, he no longer felt like running.  Gabriel hid his face behind his hands and let out a shaky breath.  He itched to interrogate Banner about his transformation; What triggered it?  How did it feel?  Had there been a catalyst?  Were there others like him?  What was it like to be filled with so much anger?  Did it compare to the hunger Gabriel faced each and every day?  Would he, could he, understand how he felt every waking moment of the day?

He nodded.   “Yes.”  His answer was a hiss upon his tongue.  And, given he knew better, Gabriel almost found himself believing it.

The table creaked loudly.  Gabriel peered between his fingers to find Banner standing and striding over to a nearby bulletin.  He tore a scrap from the wall and returned with it in hand.  “Do you know how to find the Birla Planetarium?”

“Yes.”

“Meet me there around noon tomorrow.  Bring your things.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“No, but I know men like you.”

Gabriel’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.  Surely, he hadn’t pieced it together in such a short amount of time what he was, that he had certain abilities.  “I could be anyone.  I could be sent here for you.”

“But you aren’t.”  Banner scribbled the planetarium’s address on the scrap along with a time and his first name.  “Look, I understand if you don’t show.  I do.”  He glanced towards the kitchen.  “I have to help clean up or I’d do this tonight.  Please.”  The doctor re-tied the apron around his waist.  “Meet me at the Birla tomorrow...”

Nodding, Gabriel wondered when exactly he’d lost the upper hand in the conversation.  He stood and handed his dishes to Banner in exchange for the piece of scrap paper with a polite smile before pulling his hood back up over his head and walking out of the door and into the crowded streets.

***

Gritting his teeth as he watched the young man depart, Bruce took measures to calm himself down.  No matter how innocent and scared he’d appeared, Hulk was tearing himself apart inside trying to come out.  Something was very off about the whole situation.  Casting a final look at the now empty doorway, Bruce let out a frustrated sigh and headed toward the kitchen sinks to finish his shift.

He shrugged off the inquiries of the missionaries and tended to the dishes in silence; letting the smooth texture of the water and the busy sounds of the city wrap around him like a blanket.  No-one here knew who he was, or what he was.  To them, he was an American called by a higher power to help the needy, the sick and the dying.  To them, he was Doctor Bruce and nothing more.  He’d found an appreciation and purpose in these people and there was no way some young kid was going to destroy the home he’d built for himself.

Bruce was on edge from the moment he awoke the next morning.  Hulk’s thrashing had become a continuous roar in the back of his mind screaming and begging him not to go to the planetarium.  It was unnerving to have Hulk pressing for flight rather than fight.  Still, Bruce dressed himself quickly and set off on foot for the Birla.  

The sun was high in the sky and beating down on his shoulders as he approached the planetarium.  Gabriel was a few feet from the entrance hiding in the curves of the architecture.  As Hulk pressed against his mind, Bruce tried to soothe him and remind him that when, not if, Banner needed him against this Gabriel that he'd release him without a struggle.

"Hi..." Bruce shaded his eyes from the sun as he spoke.

"Hello, Bruce." Gabriel pushed himself off of the building and stood to his full in front of him.


	2. Chapter 2

Bruce offered to take one of the Gabriel’s bags as they skirted the edges of the planetarium.  Of course, he’d been declined.  Despite Hulk’s insistence otherwise, he seemed a truly polite and gentle soul.  That wasn’t to say that Bruce couldn’t take one, long, hard look into his eyes and see darkness swirling within them.  But to cast him aside for that was probably the most hypocritical action he could devise.  No, he’d go along with this as they were.  Help Gabriel out.  Perhaps, lead him away from the city just in case things ended badly.

“So, do you have a place to stay?”  Bruce asked amicably.  

Gabriel nodded.  “Mmm, yes.”  And it was the truth.  Although, he considered it a prudent decision not to share the fact that the previous inhabitant of his room on the Floatel was no doubt washing ashore a few miles down the Hooghly River and causing a pile of trouble for the local authorities.  “That’s not really… my problem.”  

And honestly, Bruce was not all that surprised.  The young man was well-dressed and had cleaned up considerably well from their previous encounter.  If he hadn’t been at the mission last night nearly begging for help, Bruce couldn’t imagine a chance  meeting between the two of them lending towards any need to speak let alone interact as they were now.  “Yeah, about that.  This whole vague thing,”  He moved his hands through the air in front of them.  “It can only work for so long.”

“Why doctor, we just met last night.  Surely, you don’t expect me to share all of my secrets just yet?”  Gabriel’s tone while gentle held and edge of flirtation.

Temper flaring at the blush Gabriel’s words brought to his cheeks, Bruce stopped suddenly.  Gripping the other man’s arm at his elbow, he jerked him closer until they were face to face.  “I’m really not one for games.  If you truly need help, I will give it gladly… but don’t waste my time.  You need to tell me something, anything.”

A serious expression fell over Gabriel’s face.  “Fair enough.”  He eyed the grip Bruce had on his arm until he was released.  “But not here.”  

***

Wringing his hands, Bruce let his eyes wander over the interior of the hotel room that Gabriel had led him to.  This was the exact opposite of getting as far away from the city as possible.  Although, he could not have contained, even if he had tried, the dry laugh that escaped his lips upon finding out that the young man was staying at the locally famous Floating Hotel of Kolkata.  It was far from the luxury of the Stark Tower or the high end destinations that Tony had been so fond of but it was rather nice for the region.  Clearly Gabriel wasn’t exactly strapped for cash; that, or he was resourceful.  More resourceful than Bruce had been at his age.  Stepping up to the window, he followed the edge of the river to the horizon almost as if mapping an escape route before he spoke.  “So, this is more private.”

Gabriel gave Bruce’s back a half smile as he lowered himself onto the end of the bed.  He’d mulled over his options for most of last night when he hadn’t been otherwise occupied.  He knew that the doctor’s gift encompassed unimaginable strength and rage; possibly at levels rivalling his own abilities and compulsions.  He also knew that in his untransformed state, Bruce was repentant, compassionate and eager to help the lowest of creatures.  He could use that.  Oh, how he could use that.  The truth was quite simply the only thing that would work to gain his trust.  “I’m sure you’ve heard stories of things happening since the eclipse…”

“Things?”  Bruce gave Gabriel a pointed look that clearly belied his annoyance at the continued ambiguousness of his words.  He missed Tony quite poignantly at that moment; his blunt approach to the world and take no shit attitude.  Removing his glasses, Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly before replacing them.  “Gabriel…” he started.

“Rumors of some individuals waking up with… abilities.”  Gabriel, seeming to catch onto the air of impatience,  added quickly.  He glanced at Bruce’s figure in the window trying to ascertain his response before dropping his gaze to the floor upon finding to change to his posture..  

Bruce had heard talk of such things, but he’d quickly written it off as urban legend.  However, at Gabriel’s words, he couldn’t help but admit that in all likelihood most would consider Hulk the stuff of legend, urban anway, as well.  He was far from legendary; given the usual heroic implications of the word.  Stepping away from the window, he pulled a chair from the corner and placed it across from Gabriel before sitting down.  “I take it you’re one of those individuals?”

“Yes.”

That made sense, actually.  He hummed as he nodded.  Gabriel could be telling the truth.  There was a chance he’d awoken altered.  Or, the guy’s brain was a bag full of cats, as he liked to say.   Slumping back into the chair, Bruce ran his thumb over his lips as he assimilated the former of the two options with what little information he already knew about Gabriel.  “You’ve hurt someone?”  He asked softly.  It was a valid assumption to come to given the circumstances.

“Many.”

Unable to hide his flinching, Bruce let it melt into a grimace.  He’d been afraid of exactly that.  There wasn’t a lot of shaming he could really dish out on the matter, however.  It was the cool and almost calculated way that Gabriel responded to his questions that had him worried.  His quick and easy tone implied a lack of remorse.  “So, why do you think I can help you?”

Raising his head to finally meet the doctor’s gaze, Gabriel spoke; his words were slow and clear.  “Because I know who you are.  What you are.  And that even now, it’s there beneath the surface trying to claw its way out.”

His ever present poker face faltering, Bruce clenched his jaw.  His nostrils flared as he rushed to steady his breathing.  If Gabriel knew all that, he could easily be one of Ross’ mercs, a freelancer, or worse… bait.  This entire set-up could be a trap.   “That still doesn’t explain why you think I can help you.”

“Because, in many ways, we are not unalike.”  Gabriel lifted his hands and tipped his wrist ever so slowly towards the window.

As his chair began to slide across the room with him in it, Bruce felt his heart skip a few beats.  Jumping up, he let the angry burn of the shock curl up his spine and settle along his ribs.  Fear coiling around the agitation burning bright in his chest, Bruce tried to focus on remaining calm.  It had merely been a demonstration not an attack.  This time when he met Gabriel’s eyes, the darkness behind his gaze seemed to hold more meaning.  “Is that all you can do?”

“No.”

Bruce bit back asking what else he could do, knowing full well that if in the other man’s position, he wouldn’t exactly be forthcoming either.  Instead, he walked over to where the chair had settled snugly against the wall and tried to pull it away.  After a few attempts, he raised an eyebrow at Gabriel. And just like that, he was suddenly able to move the chair back to where he’d been sitting in it moments before.  “Well, you seem to have control over... it.”

“You and I both know, that’s not why I’m here.”

***

“But doesn’t it feel good to just… let go?”  Gabriel’s movement had become more and more animated as their conversation continued.

Bruce, on the other hand, had grown silent; futilely attempting to mask the horror settling into his veins.  He was beginning to doubt that there was any salvation left for this man.  Gabriel had spoken of people’s lives and deaths as conquest; trophies he’d accumulated over time.  He’d explained away his deeds by plainly stating that those he’d relieved of their mortal burden hadn’t truly deserved the gift they’d been given.  “It feels good to be useful.”  Bruce responded in a near whisper.

“To be useful?”  Gabriel chuckled.  “Doctor, they have no idea how to use you properly.”

A forced smile spreading across his face, Bruce acknowledged Gabriel with a soft laugh of his own.  “I suppose you’re right.”  He admitted begrudgingly.  Although, Bruce was pretty sure that his own concept of usefulness was a far cry more pragmatic.  

Jumping to his feet, Gabriel began pacing the length of the hotel room.  “The world is spinning and changing so fast and everyone is tearing at each other’s throat trying to keep or gain control.”  He paused and snapped his fingers in Bruce’s direction.  “But for people like you and me, it would come so easy.”  

Bruce inhaled sharply when Gabriel dropped to his knees in front of him.  

 

Gripping the arms of the chair, the younger man leaned in close.  “Can you imagine?  They’d tremble in our wake.”  Reaching out, Gabriel ran the back of his knuckles over Bruce’s cheek.  It had been a revelation all those weeks ago finding out that he could consume abilities just as easily with a brief moment of intense, emotional connection.  The blood bath only made it more fun.  The good doctor, Gabriel believed, would prove to be more fun alive than dead.

Bruce had experienced first hand exactly what it was like to have masses trembling before you.  It had been one person in particular that had shown him the unavoidable repugnance of his actions.  It had been her near death that finally suppressed his rage.  The Hulk wasn’t impervious to love and he most certainly wasn’t unaffected by regret.  “It’s really not as great as it seems in theory.”  He didn’t press into Gabriel’s touch, but he didn’t pull away either.

“And you would know, wouldn’t you, Bruce?”  Gabriel licked his lips slowly as his eyes swept over the prone form before him.  It was exhilarating to imagine all that power just a single emotional fracture away from shattering the doctor’s very being.  He dropped his hand to Bruce’s chest and spread his fingers wide over the fabric there.

“Intimately.”  Bruce’s replied without contempt.  

“Is that why you left New York?”  

The amusement behind Gabriel’s words betrayed him as he stood.  There was no compassion for Bruce’s plight to be found in this man.  And besides that, Bruce mused, he’d not done his research.  In Gabriel’s eyes, it seemed, he began and ended in what he’d witnessed of the Chitauri invasion on TV.  What an erroneous assumption that was going to prove to be, Bruce thought to himself as he smiled calmly up at the other man.  “No.  I left New York because of people like you.”  The defiance in his voice dripped from each word as they left his mouth.  

Bruce felt the slam of the chair against his back and side before he even realized that Gabriel had flung him against the wall.  Holding his now very likely bruised ribs with one hand, he gasped for breath and shot a mocking look at Gabriel.  “Oh, that’s not what you wanted to hear, Criss Angel?”  Clearly, he’d spent too much time in Stark’s company.  What was he thinking baiting an attack like that?  

“This was a mistake.”  Gabriel snarled at him.

“Yeah, it probably was.”  Standing, Bruce winced at the tug along his left side as muscles pulled at bones that felt like they were shifting beneath the surface.  

***

He should’ve rabbited.  Damn it, he should’ve known to trust his gut.  No, he should’ve known to trust Hulk to be able to sense the inherent danger present in this man.  Hulk had, after all, attempted to warn him from the beginning.  But instead, Bruce had attempted to mollify the rage within by offering up dreams of retribution and forgiveness.   Was he ever going to learn?  “You really don’t want to do this, Gabriel.”  He grunted still clinging desperately to his injured ribs.

“Call me, Sylar.”  Gabriel took a step towards him.  As his fists rose from his sides, the furniture around the room began to levitate.  One by one they flew past Bruce and smashed into the wall behind him.  

“S-sylar?”  Bruce stuttered out in confusion as he was forced to cower from the onslaught of debris.    “Listen.”  He pleaded; opting to try with Gabriel what so many others had tried with him in the past.  “You have to know how extraordinary this is…  how extraordinary you are.  There are so many other paths you could take.”  Shielding his neck as a mirror shattered behind him, Bruce curled into a ball.  Words were quickly proving useless.  

Hulk was roaring inside; eager to be released.  Vengeance would be had, this much Bruce knew.  But what would happen after that?  Did Gabriel, as dysfunctional as he seemed to be, deserve death at the hand of a mindless beast?  There were no friends, no allies, here this time to quell the rage.  It was in that moment of sheer terror that Bruce realized his biggest mistake.  He’d not saved anyone by leaving Manhattan.  Instead, he’d unknowingly exposed his greatest weakness.  

Limb by limb, his body was spread open against his will.  Bruce tried to shy away from the press of Gabriel’s presence.  It was to no avail as he was unceremoniously  lifted into the air and moved across the room.  For a brief moment, he almost found solace in the fugue state of weightlessness before being splayed out on the hotel dining table.

***

"Why are you doing this?" Bruce pushed against the invisible restraints holding him to the surface.  Hulk was gnashing his teeth and tearing at himself to take over.  But he wasn't about to play into Gabriel's hand. He wasn't that kind of monster.  Not yet.

"Because you're here and I need to express my feelings.”  The disappointment in his words hung in the air.  Raising his hand, Gabriel cut a line through the air with his fingers.  

Screaming as the skin over his eyebrow literally tore itself slowly open, Bruce began to beg.  But it was too late.  Still confined to the table top, his body pulled against Gabriel’s hold.  The wood beneath him began to splinter and crack as his mass expanded exponentially.  As his own radioactive blood pooled along his hairline and in the corners of his eyes, Bruce finally relinquished control.  

 


	3. Chapter 3

Even as the doctor’s form stretched, swelled, and darkened beneath him, Gabriel shivered and opened himself up to receive his gift; gleeful at the thought of his collection growing.  When absolutely nothing happened, it took more than a mere moment for the fact to settle in.  And then it took all of five seconds for the panic to worm its way into Gabriel’s gut.  If Banner wasn’t special, what was he?  The table collapsed onto the floor as the transformation came to its completion.  Pressing himself up against the window, Gabriel stared breathlessly at the green body now filling the low corners of the hotel room.  He was magnificent.

And stronger than he had ever imagined.  Grunting as Banner pushed against his restraints, Gabriel pressed back with equal force only to be met with more resistance.  Cycling through his defensive abilities, he attacked hard and fast.

In the end, it was the lack of begging and witty banter that finally unnerved him.  The inhuman roar that shook the very walls of the hotel cut through Gabriel’s bravado.  In an instant, fear took over and he found himself trembling as the bonds finally broke.  Even then, Banner was the most exquisite thing Gabriel has ever laid his eyes upon.  His fight or flight instincts, quite literally, took over as the pounding of his heart overwhelmed the ticking in his head.  The thinning air pressed in around him as he flew out the window; shattering the glass.  Higher and higher until his lungs seized at the cold tendrils curling down his throat.

***

When he wakes, Bruce is miles from the Hooghly River.  First, he steals something to wear. Second, he makes his way to Mitcham Station hoping and praying that his hidden key hasn’t been stolen or his locker broken into.  Both are unscathed with he arrives.  He retrieves his passport and his wallet.  Third, he finds and ATM and withdraws money from the emergency account Tony set up for him.  He knows Tony will no doubt be immediately notified and will be able to figure out where he is and that there’s been trouble before Bruce even reaches the end of the block.  He prays that instead of flying to find him that Tony will allow him to make this trek on his own and in his own time.  

His eyes scan the crowd around him, fearful of spotting Gabriel, or was it Sylar, amongst them.  He dwells on the comparison that could be made between himself and the young man as he approaches the mission with a heavy heart.  Truthfully, he should have known; especially at Hulk’s reaction.  Not even Ross unnerved his other half like that.  He should have known that his chance meeting with Gabriel meant the end to this era of solitude and safety.  He should have run.  

The director nearly chokes on his tongue when Bruce hands over nearly half of the money he’d withdrawn from the account.  It is of little consequence to himself or Tony and it is the least he can do after leaving them short handed.  He could have done so much more here.  Foreheads pressed together, he whispers a goodbye to the director and takes his first steps back towards Manhattan.

***

Less than a week later, JARVIS greets him as he enters the tower through a back entrance.  The clean, minimalistic architecture draws him in; as if he’s coming home.  Immediately, his racing heart slows.  He’s safe.  He has to be.  There is no way that Sylar or Gabriel could make it past Tony’s security.

It isn’t until he’s stepping into the penthouse, bags still in hand, without being greeted halfway there by Tony that he realizes something is so very, very wrong.  “JARVIS, where’s Tony?”  Bruce’s voice wavers as he speaks.  

“Sleeping, Dr. Banner.”  

“Sleeping?”  His doubt and surprise hang in the air.

“There have been a number of, events, since your departure, sir.”

And just like that Bruce’s heart is racing, pounding in his ears in wave after wave.  The room has just begun to spin when he hears Tony’s voice.

“Bruce?!”

It’s weak and it’s tired, but Bruce will take what he can get.  Without a second thought, he drops his luggage to the floor and strides quickly over to Tony.  Bruce’s arms are around him before he can even protest the fact that he’s clearly recently woken and still in his sleepwear.

Grunting softly, Tony closes his eyes and grips the back of Bruce’s neck to hold him in place.

It is there, after many minutes pressed chest to chest, Bruce grappling with the adrenalin rushing through his veins, the reality of what JARVIS had meant finally sinks in.  Stepping back, Bruce presses his hand gently over Tony’s sternum with a startled gasp.  Bandages and… skin?  

“What happened?” He inquires in a hoarse whisper.  Guilt surges through him.  He just knows that something awful happened to Tony in his absence.  No, due to his absence.  

There’s a moment of hesitation.  Bruce watches curiously as emotions he’s entirely unfamiliar seeing on Tony’s face appear and disappear just as quickly.  “Surgery.”

Reaching up, Bruce cups Tony’s face in an attempt to hold his gaze.  He has a million questions.  Why?  How?  Has anyone other than JARVIS been around for the recovery?  What exactly has changed?  What is changing?  But the words are heavy in his mouth; too heavy.   

“Hey, what about you?  You okay?”  Tony has stepped back and is blatantly analyzing him.  

And god help him, Bruce can only swallow thickly and shake his head.  How do you dump this at anyone’s feet let alone someone in Stark’s condition?  The haunting thought that he shouldn’t be here crosses his mind.  Memories of being in the hotel room with Gabriel as the world began to unravel plays out behind Bruce’s eyes.  He takes a deep breathe and then another. Dropping his hands from Tony’s face, Bruce finally admits.  “We’re in danger.”

“We’re always in danger.”  He responds incredulously.

“No.  Real danger, Tony.”

Understanding flashes in Stark’s eyes.  “Ross?!”

If only it was someone as predictable and safe as Ross.  “Worse.”

This clearly shocks Tony; if the sharp arch of his eyebrows and widening of his eyes are any indication.  “What do you mean worse?”

It’s the tremor in Tony’s hand as he reaches up to skirt the bandages hidden under his night shirt and the sudden slick sheen of sweat on his temples that alerts Bruce that something is very, very off.  He tries to catch Tony’s gaze but his eyes are fluttering nervously around the room as the blood drains from his features leaving a pale shadow of his normal self.  When Tony finally pinches his eyes shut and begins taking slow, shallow breaths, Bruce finally recognizes what is happening.  Tony Stark is having a panic attack.  Tony.  Stark.  Panic.  Attack.  Jaw dropping,  Bruce catches himself briefly stunned motionless.  

He snaps out of it.  “JARVIS.  Lock down the building.  Pull up every thing you can on a Gabriel Grey alias Sylar.  Put out a bulletin to security to use any force necessary.”  Bruce orders as calmly as his nerves will allow.  He doesn’t wait for the AI’s response before he reaches a tentative hand out to Tony.  “Hey,”  Bruce rubs what he hopes is a soothing circle on Tony’s back.  “It’s nothing we haven’t been able to manage before.”  He lies.  “I just wanted to… raise the alarm…”

“Y-you’re a horrible liar, Bruce.  JARVIS?”  Tony stutters out.

“Perimeters secured; notifications being sent out now, sir.”

Exhaling sharply out of his nostrils, Tony nods and presses into Bruce’s hand on his back.  “Welcome home.”  He adds with a sardonic chuckle before sagging against him with a world weary sigh.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Tony is on his second scotch before Bruce tries to push him for a reaction.  “Are you going to say anything?” He’d just spilled his guts about the entire incident back in Calcutta and been met with an uncharacteristic silence.  

“What do you want me to say?”  

His tone is curt, almost rude.  It confuses the hell out of Bruce.  “I don’t know.  Tell me I shouldn’t have drank the water?  Be a smart ass.  Or tear into me for not staying here?  Tell me I’m crazy.  Something, anything?”  The desperate tone to his own voice is unsettling.  Swallowing loudly, Bruce eyes Tony’s bar enviously.  Even on his best weeks, drinking was a hazard.  This week was most definitely not the time to start.  “The things this guy could do, Tony.”  He pushes a little harder.  “He threw me across the room without lifting a finger.  He restrained me with his mind.  He restrained the god damn Hulk with his mind!”  Tony’s eyebrows shot up at that but he still didn’t speak.  “He, he… tore me open and I.  And all you can do is stand there staring at me like a fucking automaton.”  Bruce’s nostrils flare but no other outward indication of transformation presents itself.

A flicker of emotion passes over Tony’s face.  At first Bruce thinks he’s actually taken insult at his words.  But then, he speaks.  “What do you mean he tore you open?”  Tony’s voice is a dark, low whisper.  He looks over Bruce as if trying to find an injury that belied such an attack.  “What did you mean by that?”

Smirking, Bruce purses his lips and turns his face away.  “With his mind, but it wasn’t in my head.”  He clenches his fist tightly at his sides.  “It felt like he was trying to lobotomize me and I couldn’t stop it.  I don’t even know what happened afterwards.”

Tony steps into Bruce’s personal space; his focus centered on the smooth expanse of the other man’s forehead.  “Hulk?  He healed it?”  Bruce offers a brief nod.  “And this, Gabriel… Sylar, he said that he woke up one day all mojo’d up?”

“Yes, Tony.”  He looks down at his feet then lifts his chin back up in a way that spoke of defiance.  “I know it sounds crazy, but he said that it’s been happening all over and… there’s talk of it… I’ve heard it.”  

Closing his eyes, Tony lets out a sigh before swallowing down the remaining scotch that’s left in his tumbler.  He bites back a hiss at the familiar burn of the alcohol in his throat.  “It doesn’t sound crazy.  None of what you’ve said sounds crazy, Bruce.”  His voice is actually calm; too calm.  He turns and paces the glass of the penthouse a few times.  “Radio silence, JARVIS.”

“Sir.”

Tony feigns keeping his attention on the cityscape beyond the tower as he begins to speak.  “This doesn’t leave this room.”  There is a lapse of silence for which he takes as acquiescence on Banner’s part.  “A few years before MIT, I, uh… things started happening.”

“Things?”

“I’d, uh.”  Clearing his throat, Tony reaches out and runs his fingertips over the glass.  “Things with technology.  I could touch something and understand its working without even…”  He cut his eyes finally back over to Bruce.  “Without even trying.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying… that, is my mojo.”

His mouth suddenly dry, Bruce cocks his head at Tony.  “So the genius behind Stark Industries, is all a lie?”

“It’s not a lie.”  Tony shoots back angrily.  “The R & D?  The concepts, the engineering… that’s all me.  Well, not always now, but in the beginning… all me.  I could understand the workings faster than anyone else I’ve met but applying them that’s, that’s me.”

As much as he’d like to play it off as being just another way that intelligence or genius manifested itself, Bruce knows otherwise.  Everything he knew and everything he theorized took time, energy, blood, sweat and tears; not just the end game.  How many others like Tony and Gabriel were there out there?  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply.”

“Yeah, well.  You did.”  Tony turns to face him; shoulders pressed against the window.  “So, this Sylar guy.  He has telekinetic abilities?”

“Yeah.  But that’s not everything.  He can also control electric currents and he can fly.”  Sighing at Tony’s incredulous look, Bruce continues.  “I know, I know… that all sounds pretty familiar; Thor.  But this wasn’t like that at all.  There’s no Mjolnir.  There’s just… Sylar.”

“And he wanted, what, the Hulk?”

“I, I don’t know.  He played hard on the sympathy card until he realized our… ideologies didn’t sync up, then he just…”

“Transformed?”

The implication is bold even for Tony.  “...became someone else.”  Bruce didn’t need the similarities between the two of them highlighted.  He was more than well aware of just how much of Gabriel was in him and Sylar in Hulk.  The key difference, it seemed, was remorse.  It didn’t appear that Gabriel even gave a damn.  You just met him.  You didn’t know him.  How can you make that kind of call?

“So, what’s our plan, Big Guy?”

“Plan?!”  Bruce’s voice rises in exasperation.  “Tony.”  He chastises.  “You’re recovering from major surgery.  Pepper’s… Pepper’s not just going to bounce back from this without some kind of trauma.  The rest of the world doesn’t work like that.”

“I know that.”  Tony spits back.

“The only plan is to stay the hell off of this nut job’s radar.”

A heavy, angry silence hangs in the air between them.  It’s obvious that Tony is itching to bring the fight to them.  Whatever had happened in his absence that had led to the surgical removal of the arc reactor, the panic attacks, Tony and Pepper’s split, and Pepper’s own super-secret surgery that no one was talking about; something didn’t add up.  What the hell had gone down after he left?

“Do you think S.H.I.E.L.D. knows about people like… him?” Tony questions after a few minutes; when it becomes apparent that neither of them are going to give in.

“I.  Think.”  Bruce considers his words before continuing.  “That they do.  It would explain the Avengers Initiative.  The super soldiers.  Everything.”

“The Hulk?”

“No, Tony.”  Bruce replies in a hushed tone that betrays his shame instantly.  “What you see, what you know, is what there is.”  He wrings his hands together.  “I did this to myself.  Someone did this to me.  That’s all semantics.  The point is:  I didn’t just wake up like this.”

***

Eyes squinting as he watched the newly procured footage over and over again.  Gabriel ran his thumb over his bottom lip as he pondered the possibilities.  Was Banner another empath like himself and Peter?  Was there a connection to the Petrelli family in the doctor’s past?  Or was he just another hapless idiot taken in by The Company and then Haitianed into a blank slate?  Something had prevented Sylar from taking the transformative rage that he so longed for.  But what?  

One thing was certain.  Bruce had no shortage of enemies in high places.  Well, a few less today than he’d had yesterday.  Gabriel smiled serenely as the he transferred the files he’d just found to an encrypted zip drive.  Once it was completed, he retrieved the drive and then melted the computer into a pool on the desk’s surface.  Striding over the littered bodies of dead soldiers and officers, he took in a deep breath as he stepped out of the complex.  The smell of blood always seemed to fill up a room too fast for his liking.  He wondered how long it would be until someone came looking for them.  What would the state of their bodies be then?  And what exactly would the powers that be think happened?  In any case, with Ross out of the way there was one less obstacle between himself and Banner.

 


End file.
